Hybrid filberts are the next big thing in biofuels. Move over jatropha!
Baobab products galore
There’s a Baobab Fruit Company in Senegal. Via Timbuktu Chronicles.
Nutrition news from the Antipodes
What do these fruits have in common: Kakadu plum, Illawarra plum, Burdekin plum, Davidson’s plum, riberry, red and yellow finger limes, Tasmanian pepper, brush cherry, Cedar Bay cherry, muntries and Molucca raspberry? Five points if you said “They’re all native Australian fruits”. Ten points if you said “According to this press release I just read, they’re exceptional sources of antioxidants identified in research published in the journal Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies”.
Ten points to me.
Tree domestication a huge success
There’s a heart-warming tale over at the Rural Poverty Portal (nice site, too) of the International Fund for Agricultural Development. A tree domestication project in west Africa has brought higher incomes and improved status for women, which has translated into schooling and better nutrition. Women are running their own tree nurseries, selecting which species to grow and nurturing them for market. So far the number of species is limited, perhaps that will improve. The project was implemented by the World Agroforestry Centre.
Educated fruit
This story — EARTH University Bananas and Pineapples Arrive in Whole Foods Markets’ Stores in the Southeast — needs a bit of unpacking.
There is an agricultural university in Costa Rica called EARTH; Escuela de Agricultura de la Región Tropical Húmeda. EARTH was founded in 1990 on a former banana plantation, and has its own model banana farm. Also, two pineapple plots. It aims to teach a kind of ethical agriculture. Profits from the sales to Whole Foods Markets support scholarships and research and investment in pineapple production. The Southeast in the story refers to Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Even though Whole Foods Markets is an 800 lb gorilla, on balance this is probably A Good Thing.